Comedian, actor and educator Bill Cosby is known for his strong opinions and he proved so once again this past Monday (March 4). As a guest on CNN ‘s Starting Point, Cosby checked the current Republican base after comparing them to civil rights movement-era opponents of desegregation.

Mediaite reports that after host Soledad O’Brien opened up the segment with discussing the rise of the Civil Rights Movement and the racist attitudes Black people faced. After O’Brien mentioned that Cosby won an Emmy award in 1966 for his performance on NBC television show I Spy during that time, former Republican congressman Connie Mack uttered disbelief at the fact the program was banned in some Southern states. Cosby responded with a direct critique of Mack’s party and their visible disdain during President Barack Obama’s most recent State Of The Union address.

Cosby on the Republican Party:

To see people sitting down when there are others standing and cheering. I think we have people sitting there who are as bad as the people who were against any kind of desegregation [in the 1960s]. And then in place of a better America, they want their own sick feelings put across, and it’s …it isn’t… it isn’t a good time, but I think, also on our part as professors and presidents of colleges all over, and in public schools, we need to get the education of the correct history that happened so people can say, ‘Yes, this really did happen.’ Because you have to include the assassination of a president [John F. Kennedy] and ask the question maybe that [the voting rights protests] had something to do with it also.

O’Brien quickly jumped in before introducing a later part of the segment, addressing Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s “racial entitlement” comment regarding Section 5 of the Voting Rights Acts and the uproar it caused among civil rights leaders.